Speech by ITU Secretary-General, Dr Hamadoun I. Touré

ITU Council 2014 - Final Meeting

18 October 2014, Busan, Republic of Korea

Excellencies,
Distinguished Councillors
Ladies and gentlemen,

Welcome to Busan, and may I thank you all for being here today for this final meeting of the 2014 session of Council, and for giving up your weekend to do so.

It is only five months since I addressed you last, in Geneva, back in May – so I will be able to be brief in updating you on our activities since then.

Distinguished Councillors.

ITU has continued to be both busy and productive since the full session of Council closed on 15 May. Each of the three Sectors has been doing exemplary work since we last met.

I will not go into great detail now, but I would like to highlight just a few examples of the three sectors' work, among their many other activities, which show their dedication and commitment to the Union's greater goals and wider achievements.

• The pace of preparations for WRC-15 is accelerating. All of the ITU-R studies on the technical and regulatory aspects of items included in the WRC-15 agenda have been finalized, and these studies will be reviewed and compiled at the Conference Preparatory Meeting in March 2015. The resulting report will be made available to Member States for the preparation of their proposals to WRC-15.
• Work has also progressed on many new and revised Recommendations and Reports for radiocommunication services – including recommendations on systems for terrestrial digital sound broadcasting and a recommendation for a satellite carrier identification system.
• Work has progressed on the evolution from IMT-Advanced to IMT2020 in accordance with the foreseen timescales. Further evaluation processes, assessment and subsequent consensus building will establish the global framework for the deployment of mobile broadband services.
• BR has also continued working closely with BDT and ITU regional offices to provide technical assistance to administrations in various matters related to spectrum management, such as: IMT deployment, digital switchover, digital dividend allocation and satellite networks.
• BR has continued to provide assistance to membership on the application of the Radio regulations, through regional and world radio seminars, and has continued to improve the efficiency of processing of terrestrial service notices. In the period from June to September 2014 more than 47,000 new terrestrial notices were processed.
• Following the WRC-12 decision, BR developed and implemented a secure paperless electronic approach for the electronic submission and publication of API for satellite networks or systems subject to coordination – the Space Web-based Interface for Secure Communication, SpaceWISC.

• The establishment of a new Focus Group on Digital Financial Services. The Focus group will develop a standardization roadmap for interoperabile mobile money services, as well as a regulatory toolkit to help national policy makers and regulatory authorities encourage the adoption of these standards.
• The establishment of a new Focus Group on Aviation Applications of Cloud Computing for Flight Data Monitoring. The group will study the requirements for standards to enable an 'aviation cloud' for real-time monitoring of flight data.
• The holding of the fourth 'Green Standards Week', in Beijing, in September, dedicated to the theme of 'Smart Sustainable Cities. The week concluded with a call for stronger cooperation between the energy and ICT sectors, and emphasizes the value of international technical standards in ensuring that smart-city solutions see the benefits of economies of scale and interoperability.
• "Kaleidoscope", ITU's flagship academic event, was held at the invitation of the Russian Federation's Ministry of Communications and Mass Media and hosted by the Bonch-Bruevich Saint-Petersburg State University of Telecommunications. The winning paper is titled "Towards Converged 5G Mobile Networks – Challenges and Current Trends."
• The testing of a range of mobile phones for hands-free performance – a test which most phones failed to pass, and which has led car makers to issue a decisive call to phone manufacturers to adhere to standards.
• The near-completion of standardized signalling requirements and protocols for software-defined networking, SDN.
• The launch of a new publication entitled 'Understanding patents, competition and standardization in an interconnected world', which provides an introduction to standardization and intellectual property systems and the various means with which ICT standards bodies manage their intersection.
• The publication of the TechWatch Report 'Tactile Internet', articulating a vision of a future Internet characterized by low latency high availability, reliability and security.
• The launch of a new ITU-T Global Portal with special focus on activities in the Africa, Asia Pacific, Arab and Americas regions.

• The very successful 14th Global Symposium for Regulators in Manama, Bahrain in June, held under the theme of 'Capitalizing on the potential of the digital world'. More than 700 leading specialists from 113 countries worldwide attended the event, and once again, BDT lined-up an impressive programme for this year, with many prominent speakers and expert panels.
• A BDT management retreat which was organized in June to ensure the effective implementation of WTDC decisions and to set the foundations for facing future challenges.
• A Cooperation Agreement between ITU, 11 Pacific Island countries and satellite partners, which was signed to provide connectivity in order for remote islands and rural areas to access ICTs for development and for emergency telecommunications.
• The meetings of the two ITU-D Study Groups in September, which successfully kicked off the new cycle of Study Groups starting from this year.
• The meeting of TDAG-14 in September, which agreed to create three groups in the areas of: Strategic Plan, Operational plan and Declaration; Rules of procedure of ITU-D; and Inter-sectoral team on issues of mutual interest.
• Preparations for the forthcoming 12th edition of the World Telecommunication and ICT Indicators Symposium, which will be held this year in Tbilisi, Georgia, at the end of November, and which will also see the launch of the 2014 edition of the flagship report 'Measuring the Information Society'.

   
Distinguished Councillors,

The first was the WSIS+10 High Level Event, which was held from 10 to 13 June in Geneva. This was an extended version of the annual WSIS Forum, aimed at providing the necessary vision for the way forward beyond 2015; and the commitment to ensure that ICTs remain high on the political agenda over the next decade.

The event was a tremendous success, attracting more over 1,600 WSIS stakeholders from more than 140 countries, with thousands more joining us through remote participation.

High-level representatives of the wider WSIS stakeholder community graced the Forum, with more than 100 ministers, and many deputies, ambassadors, CEOs and civil society leaders contributing passionately to the programme.

The WSIS+10 High Level Event endorsed two powerful consensus-based outcome documents:

• The 'WSIS+10 Statement on Implementation of WSIS Outcomes'; and
• The 'WSIS+10 Vision for WSIS Beyond 2015'.
  

Since we launched the Commission in 2010, in partnership with UNESCO, we have seen tremendous progress in broadband development worldwide, and while there is still much to do, we can be proud of having raised the issue on the global agenda over the past four years.

At the New York meeting we launched the latest edition of the Commission's key publication, 'The State of Broadband 2014', which is a unique global snapshot of broadband network access and affordability, with country-by country data measuring broadband access against key advocacy targets set by the Commission.

On a final note, I wish to draw your attention to the online platform developed for the Republic of Costa Rica to allow them to engage members of the public in creating a new ITU resolution on Youth. This is the first time that one of our members has ever embarked on a public consultation to help develop an ITU level resolution, and we see exciting implications for the future. During the lifetime of the consultation, the platform containing the draft resolution was viewed more than 1200 times, with 306 users offering their thoughts and suggestions to the text. This facility will continue to be made available to ITU members, should they wish to engage online citizens on future policy documents. In addition to Costa Rica's proposal, it is good to see so many regions placing high priority on youth, with new draft resolutions on this topic being proposed by the Americas, Europe and Arab States.

Distinguished Councillors,

We have a busy morning ahead of us, and so let me therefore bring this intervention to a close at this point, and let me thank you once again for coming here to work on this Saturday morning, ahead of the opening of PP-14 on Monday.

Thank you.